Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
I wasn’t expecting him to ask, “So…everyone in that town is a monster?”
“No, there are some people who didn’t change. And many of the monsters have human significant others.”
“Sure…but nobody would look twice at someone who was disfigured?”
The point of his inquiry suddenly dawned on me. I should’ve thought of this from the very beginning. From the moment I saw the inhabitants of the town, it should have occurred to me.
“You’re not a monster, Heath. But having spent the last decade being the face of our business, I know you’ll never believe me. To be honest, I feel like an idiot for not thinking of this before. This place could be the opportunity for you to live somewhere that you feel accepted and never have to feel self-conscious about who you are or what you look like.”
“It would be hard to close the doors here,” Heath sighed.
“I don’t think we should,” I argued. “We both know Greg has been due for a promotion for a really long time. I think he should step into the role of president over that region while we expand out here.”
“He could do it.” Heath sounded certain, and I was glad to hear it because it meant it would take less convincing for him to pick up and leave. To open a business where I got to fly, work with my best friend, and be with the woman of my dreams all seemed too good to be true. But I wasn’t going to question my good fortune.
“Why don’t you come out here next week? We’ll look around for some real estate, and you can check out the town. Then we will have a conference call with Greg together.”
“I can’t believe I’m even considering this.” Heath commented with humor in his voice.
“Maybe we can even find you a woman,” I snarked.
Heath didn’t respond right away, and I wondered if he was actually considering my words. I wanted him to be happy, and maybe he could find that here. I certainly had. As well as many of the other inhabitants of Screaming Woods.
“I’ll send you my flight information as soon as it’s booked.”
“Excellent. So listen, I’ve done a lot of research, and run a bunch of numbers, why don’t we go through everything?”
Heath agreed, and we spent the next several hours going through all of the details and brainstorming new ideas.
When we finally hung up, it was nearly dark. I glanced at the clock to see that Isla would be home in about an hour. I shut down my computer and stood, stretching to work out the kinks from being hunched over the desk for so long.
It was time for dinner, so I wandered over to the kitchen and searched for something to cook. Unfortunately, I’d pretty much exhausted everything I bought before I brought Isla home.
Then another idea struck… Apparently, I was just full of them today.
I grinned as I jogged back to the desk and picked up my cell phone. I made a call, put in an order, and then relaxed as I waited for my food to be delivered while I fantasized about how I was going to tip my delivery woman.
11
ISLA
I had about a million things to do in the office after I had taken two days off, but I hadn’t accomplished much of anything since I’d gotten here. I was in such a bad mood that Braylon actually told me that I needed to cheer up.
The only thing I could think about was the excitement in Cooper’s voice when he told me he was going to call his business partner. I assumed that meant they were going to discuss when he would be returning to California to step back into his role as their lead pilot, but a small part of me still held out hope that he wouldn’t be in a rush to get back to his old life because he wanted to stay in Screaming Woods with me.
“Hey, boss?” Braylon poked his head inside my office. “We just got an order from Cooper. Do you want me to do the delivery, or do you want to handle it?”
So much for my plan to put off talking to him until after work.
“I’ll go since I’m pretty much done for the day.” I pushed away from my desk with a sigh.
“Remember that advice you gave me about smiling at the customers?” Braylon patted me on the back. “You should probably take it for yourself since this one is your boyfriend. You might scare him off otherwise.”
I didn’t bother telling him that wasn’t going to be a problem since Cooper didn’t plan on sticking around anyway. I also didn’t worry about how long it took me to deliver the food he’d ordered. I took my time getting there instead of flying as fast as I could.